im reaching mid 30s soon, right now engaged planning to get merrid soon

right now im kinda on autopilot on work, where while there are difficult moments, its relatively sailing okay so far and dont need much heavy working on my side can still clock out 9-6 on time daily. call it slacking or stagnation, but it helps me alot in work life balance. job security ofc always remain a threat, last time i got retrenched because entire department shut down from company reorg

alot people advised i should be focusing 200% into career and improvement at this age. while this is true for the future, but i feel like i dont want to go higher into management roles or other roles with insane levels of responsibilities. money would be better, but the other trade off will be drifting more towards work liao. saw so many of my friends all went hardcore into career and they disappeared behind work and other responsibilities. not sure on their social life but i daresay with kids + bigger workload, its only getting smaller and smaller.

im quite happy to stay at current role despite it being considered "stagnating" then focus more on hobbies and other life stuff as i age. i got a house still on loan, reusing my old parent's car so my finances/savings are relatively stable IMO, dont really need to chase the next greatest whatever to keep up with the jones. like many said, alot people like to chase for more money then they just kept spending more and more and kept chasing the infinite loop, not something im keen to do at all.

this, and worse is theyll always project things like "kids these days" or "new gen dont know how to work hard" etc just as validation and self-jerk

theyre just bitter at that age